Obesity is a medical condition that is reaching epidemic proportions among humans throughout the world. It is a condition that is associated with other diseases or conditions that disrupt life and lifestyles. Obesity is recognized as a serious risk factor for other diseases and/or conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and arteriosclerosis. It is also known that increased body weight due to obesity can place a burden on joints, such as knee joints, causing arthritis, pain, and stiffness.
Because overeating and obesity have become such a problem, many individuals are interested in weight reduction and/or maintaining a healthy body weight.
The ability to bind antagonistically to opioid receptors has been suggested to be useful for treatment of many other diseases or conditions not related to obesity including drug and/or substance addiction, depression, opiate overdose, irritable bowel syndrome, schizophrenia, compulsive disorders, septic shock, nausea, vomiting, and stroke. This ability may be useful for the treatment of obesity as well. It has been suggested that the opioid receptors may play a role in control of food intake and food selection. (See, for example, Bodnar, R. J., in Peptides, 25, (2004), p. 697.) Antagonists or inverse agonists of the opioid receptors have been shown to reduce body weight in obese rats.
There is, therefore, an ongoing need for new opioid antagonists for the treatment of obesity, diseases and/or conditions associated with obesity, as well as the above-mentioned non-obesity related diseases and/or conditions.